Thank you Michael, glad you enjoyed it! I still have some challenges ahead for me, one being my Neolamprologus Tretophealus. Spawned them several times yet can't get the fry to survive past 2 weeks. Hopefully will get there! Glad you're enjoying my videos mate!
Thanks for the video Jason.Very informative. Is it alright to get a group of 1 inch calvus from a breeder or is that size too sensitive... Im panning a Calvus only tank. Your videos on Calvus is very informative.
That size is perfect David. I find they are only sensitive maybe up to 2 to 3 months old. Not sure of all people who breed Calvus experience that but I do. Thank you for the kind words, really glad you enjoyed the video. Good luck with your Calvus!
Interesting Jim. Yeah they don't do well with any changes to water parameters. Including water chemistry and temperature. Did you lose a lot of stock mate?
@@JasonsCichlids Yeah lost way more then I would like to admit too. They are really touchy. I think the smaller (sub adult - not fry) are easier to handle then the bigger adult ones. Then there is lock jaw. They can dislocate thier jaw if they get super stressed while catching/moving them etc. Still, despite all this an amazing fish
Yeah it's very disappointing isn't it. I lost approx 95 fry (the entire calvus spawn) last November. I was devastated. As sad as it is, it is comforting to know I am not the only one. I agree, sub adult - not fry are far more hardier once they reach that age. And yes, agree again that they are an amazing fish.
@@JasonsCichlids Thing is, they are underrated. There are so many morphs of these fish. You have the white's/the different blacks (Congo Black, Inkfin Black, Nangu Black etc), the red's, the yellow's, the gold heads etc. And among those color morphs there are differences in them from different locations. But not many people seemed to have dug deep into this. Just a few bays around from where I am I have seen amazing fire fin types - chocolate body colour with deep red fins. Not sure if you ever saw the photo of an Alto allegedly from Crocodile Island (just off shore from Mpulungu area) that had a blue dorsal fin/pectoral fins ? It was an American web site. I have looked and looked and looked for that fish around that Island but never found it. I call foul on it. Photoshop maybe? IDK. I call it the elusive blue Alto Lamprologus. I intend to get into these fish in a big way once I have my tanks sorted out. Going to need a lot of tanks though to get a good selection of these fish since there are so many morphs of them.
Oh yes there are plenty of morphs of calvus. I am not sure how many of them are in Australia though. We seem to just get the Black, White and now Gold calvus are starting to come through. There are far more different types of compressiceps around here though. If you haven't seen it yet, my in depth species profile here th-cam.com/video/rRpfzTAvNIY/w-d-xo.html kind of explains some of the different types. But wow a variety with blue dorsal and pectoral fins! That would be impressive to see, maybe it was Photoshopped. I haven't seen it but I guess we can't rule anything out, who knows what is possible in that huge lake! But yeah be great if you can get into them and grow your selection of all the different types! Pretty much my favourite fish from Lake Tanganyika. Hence why it is my channel logo! haha
Cheers mate. To be honest with you I haven't really ever considered doing it. I feel it will disrupt the adults too much. The female will simply dart straight back in there if I try remove the shell with the fry still inside it. That means the female is without the male for longer, the male is with one less shell and I really don't know what that would do to their bond, there is a risk it could break. It just seems risky. Waiting for the fry to exit the shell and netting the fry out seems far less stressful on the parents and yeah its just simply worked for me so far. Unless something changes I think I'll just continue doing it this way. Cheers for your question ✌
I purchased a 75 gallon aquarium to set up a Lake Tanganyikan tank. I purchased a HOB Marineland Emperor 400 that claims to move 400 gallons per hour. Now I am wondering it will be to much water flow for that tank. It’s hard to tell how much water flow is in your Your experiencing with your sump. Thoughts? Just found your channel and subscribed, I enjoy what your doing in your fish room.
Hi Michael, with most hang on back filters you should be able to adjust the flow rate. So this shouldn't be a problem if you find the flow is a bit too strong. With that filter and that size aquarium, your turn over rate is approximately 5 times the aquarium water volume. So it is more than enough. Thanks so much for subscribing, really appreciate it and glad you are enjoying seeing my fish room.
With calvus fry I recommend you do not have an aquarium light on the tank. Ambient room light alone is enough for them at a young age. This helps minimise algae growth. The other is efficient filtration. Do those things and your fry will do great
Awsome video, my batch of 31 comps got eaten in the fry saver by a bristle nose :( $900 meal for him. Sad for me, leaving fry on the tank and shell next time for parents to feed and defend them...
@@JasonsCichlids in adult size or juvenile? I decide to grow 30 of them in this tank 😬 is it insane? Or i can grow them out and then i remove extra males then separate colonies in more tanks... What's your idea?
I was saying a maximum of 6 if you wanted to grow them to an adult size in the tank. But yeah 30 is a bit much unfortunately. Their growth may become stunted if you keep that many in a tank for a long time and they may never reach their maximum size. I would separate them out into separate aquariums if you are able to.
Water quality effects growth yes. But they need stable water parameters. Weekly water changes of around 25% are best. Chasing "ideal" water parameters isn't a great thing for Calvus.
@@JasonsCichlids I already have a Calvus and 3 Caudopunctatus and wanted a few more fish to add to the tank, they are in a smaller tank at the minute so the old and the new fish would be all added at the same time to the new one. I didn't really want groups as they will breed and then cause trouble, I really wanted a single gold head comp to go in there but I'm not sure how that will go with a comp and a calvus, if either of them would bully the other one too much! Any suggestions as to what to add at all?
Ohh ok, well good that you will add all the fish at the same time once you get your new fish. I personally wouldn't mix comps and calvus together. I have heard comps are more aggro (although I am not sure this is true). But the bigger issue is that they can cross breed. I would stick with calvus for now, if you want something for mid water that doesn't hide in caves I would add some Cyprichromis.
Hi Jason, do you think one Altolamprologus compressiceps (or one 5Bar cichlid) + 4 N.Caudopunctatus + Multies would be a good idea for 40G (160l = 100x40x40 cm?), Thank you so much
Unfortunately I would not keep 5 bar cichlids with the other fish you mentioned. They are just extremely aggressive. I don't think you should mix any of those fish actually. Both the caudopuncs and multies would be competing for the shells. And the Compressiceps may grow so large that it will eat both species. It might be best that you pick one of either caudopuncs or multies and then maybe choose a rock dwelling fish like a julie or a type of brichardi? Hope that helps mate
@@JasonsCichlids TX for the answer, I am asking since I've seen successful tanks with multies and frontosas. But N Caudopunctatus are more a rock dweller than shell dweller? Have also been thinking about Julies (have kept few in the past with Malawis). What other centrepiece fish would you recommend instead? I am still thinking about either multies or ocelatus (but see from others that they don't really tolerate even themselves).
Oh interesting, could always give it a go but yeah if you want to breed them I wouldn't recommend you do it. Yeah caudopuncs are known to be rock dwellers too but will happily take up residence in shells too. Could always try it and see how they go. I'd recommend some sort of cyprichromis which would swim in the open water.
@@JasonsCichlids thnaks Jason. Yeah, pitty that the occies are so territorial. However I have 4 small tanks (all planted, 2 are small vases with shrimp), if I would put occies +few punks and some cyprichromis, and occies would decide to breed, I could have an excuse for my girlfriend to get another say 20 gallon for the offspring :D To say look the poor fish, they will kill their babies, we cannot that happen. TX again, have great holidays. Mike
Hi Jason I got my 12 black calcus fry...around 1 inch.... I feed it presently crushed flakes.....what all can I feed them?? Can i powder NLS/Northfin /Hikari and give them too...??
Congrats David! They must look amazing together. I would feel them some protein. Adult brine shrimp and Mysis shrimp. The frozen types will be fine. I feed mine pellets but I soak them before hand. I've never tried Northfin but have used NLS and Hikari. Good luck!
I would like to ask how long does it takes the eggs to hatch? I have a couple of compressiceps (Almost same as Calvus) with eggs. I Discovered the eggs for the first time about about 5 or 6 days ago. I use a special Calvus cavern.
@@JasonsCichlids i can tell you it is way longer. My guess is it takes about 7-10 days to hatch then they have that big eggsack. Count a week before that is gone. So from lay to freeswimming is between 17 to 21 days. I have a picture of the cave with the fry swimming in a corner if you are interested. Only about 10 fry left 4 weeks since i placed them in growing tank
So far, this is about the best resource on TH-cam for raising Calvus fry. I keep looking for other content but always come back to this.
Nice fish. Great video!
Thanks for that, glad you enjoyed it
Another great video!!
Thanks for that mate ✌✌
@@JasonsCichlids what type of rocks do you use for your aquarium cichlids sir?
Nice video👍
Cheers mate!
Great video, you are doing a great job with some difficult fish to breed. Awesome content!
Thank you Michael, glad you enjoyed it! I still have some challenges ahead for me, one being my Neolamprologus Tretophealus. Spawned them several times yet can't get the fry to survive past 2 weeks. Hopefully will get there! Glad you're enjoying my videos mate!
Very very good work, I do enjoy this video!
Thanks Matteo, glad you liked it ✌
Always enjoy your explenation and tips, very helpfull👍👍
Thanks for that, really pleased to hear that you find them useful ✌✌
Thanks for the video Jason.Very informative.
Is it alright to get a group of 1 inch calvus from a breeder or is that size too sensitive...
Im panning a Calvus only tank.
Your videos on Calvus is very informative.
That size is perfect David. I find they are only sensitive maybe up to 2 to 3 months old. Not sure of all people who breed Calvus experience that but I do. Thank you for the kind words, really glad you enjoyed the video. Good luck with your Calvus!
@@JasonsCichlids Thanks Jason
Yes some good observations here. The key issue is water temp shock - ask me how i know
Interesting Jim. Yeah they don't do well with any changes to water parameters. Including water chemistry and temperature. Did you lose a lot of stock mate?
@@JasonsCichlids Yeah lost way more then I would like to admit too. They are really touchy. I think the smaller (sub adult - not fry) are easier to handle then the bigger adult ones. Then there is lock jaw. They can dislocate thier jaw if they get super stressed while catching/moving them etc. Still, despite all this an amazing fish
Yeah it's very disappointing isn't it. I lost approx 95 fry (the entire calvus spawn) last November. I was devastated. As sad as it is, it is comforting to know I am not the only one. I agree, sub adult - not fry are far more hardier once they reach that age. And yes, agree again that they are an amazing fish.
@@JasonsCichlids Thing is, they are underrated. There are so many morphs of these fish. You have the white's/the different blacks (Congo Black, Inkfin Black, Nangu Black etc), the red's, the yellow's, the gold heads etc. And among those color morphs there are differences in them from different locations. But not many people seemed to have dug deep into this. Just a few bays around from where I am I have seen amazing fire fin types - chocolate body colour with deep red fins. Not sure if you ever saw the photo of an Alto allegedly from Crocodile Island (just off shore from Mpulungu area) that had a blue dorsal fin/pectoral fins ? It was an American web site. I have looked and looked and looked for that fish around that Island but never found it. I call foul on it. Photoshop maybe? IDK. I call it the elusive blue Alto Lamprologus. I intend to get into these fish in a big way once I have my tanks sorted out. Going to need a lot of tanks though to get a good selection of these fish since there are so many morphs of them.
Oh yes there are plenty of morphs of calvus. I am not sure how many of them are in Australia though. We seem to just get the Black, White and now Gold calvus are starting to come through. There are far more different types of compressiceps around here though. If you haven't seen it yet, my in depth species profile here th-cam.com/video/rRpfzTAvNIY/w-d-xo.html kind of explains some of the different types. But wow a variety with blue dorsal and pectoral fins! That would be impressive to see, maybe it was Photoshopped. I haven't seen it but I guess we can't rule anything out, who knows what is possible in that huge lake! But yeah be great if you can get into them and grow your selection of all the different types! Pretty much my favourite fish from Lake Tanganyika. Hence why it is my channel logo! haha
HI Jason, great video. But why are you not simply moving the shell with the fry to the grow out tank?
Cheers mate. To be honest with you I haven't really ever considered doing it. I feel it will disrupt the adults too much. The female will simply dart straight back in there if I try remove the shell with the fry still inside it. That means the female is without the male for longer, the male is with one less shell and I really don't know what that would do to their bond, there is a risk it could break. It just seems risky. Waiting for the fry to exit the shell and netting the fry out seems far less stressful on the parents and yeah its just simply worked for me so far. Unless something changes I think I'll just continue doing it this way. Cheers for your question ✌
Don't you pull out the shell with the fry in it to move them into the new tank?
I purchased a 75 gallon aquarium to set up a Lake Tanganyikan tank. I purchased a HOB Marineland Emperor 400 that claims to move 400 gallons per hour. Now I am wondering it will be to much water flow for that tank. It’s hard to tell how much water flow is in your Your experiencing with your sump. Thoughts? Just found your channel and subscribed, I enjoy what your doing in your fish room.
Hi Michael, with most hang on back filters you should be able to adjust the flow rate. So this shouldn't be a problem if you find the flow is a bit too strong. With that filter and that size aquarium, your turn over rate is approximately 5 times the aquarium water volume. So it is more than enough. Thanks so much for subscribing, really appreciate it and glad you are enjoying seeing my fish room.
How do you keep the substrate clean with the fry in there?
With calvus fry I recommend you do not have an aquarium light on the tank. Ambient room light alone is enough for them at a young age. This helps minimise algae growth. The other is efficient filtration. Do those things and your fry will do great
At what size do you think they get passed the fragile stage?
I would say once they are over 1cm. Not easy to say but once they start to develop the calvus shape they should be a little hardier.
Awsome video, my batch of 31 comps got eaten in the fry saver by a bristle nose :( $900 meal for him. Sad for me, leaving fry on the tank and shell next time for parents to feed and defend them...
Cheers for that Trent. Oh no mate, really? That's very frustrating, were the comps newly hatched or something?
How many calvus babies can reach in adult size in a 230 lit tank?
I wouldn't say more than 6. Probably better with 4.
@@JasonsCichlids in adult size or juvenile? I decide to grow 30 of them in this tank 😬 is it insane? Or i can grow them out and then i remove extra males then separate colonies in more tanks... What's your idea?
I was saying a maximum of 6 if you wanted to grow them to an adult size in the tank. But yeah 30 is a bit much unfortunately. Their growth may become stunted if you keep that many in a tank for a long time and they may never reach their maximum size. I would separate them out into separate aquariums if you are able to.
@@JasonsCichlids tnx . Are their growth related to changing water frequently? Like discus juveniles.
I could change up to 30% of water daily
Water quality effects growth yes. But they need stable water parameters. Weekly water changes of around 25% are best. Chasing "ideal" water parameters isn't a great thing for Calvus.
I've got an empty 160 litre tank at the moment, could I have a group of these and if so, how many?...Cheers mate
Hmm depends on how tall the tank is but I would say 4 to 6 if you want them to grow to their max size without being stunted.
@@JasonsCichlids I already have a Calvus and 3 Caudopunctatus and wanted a few more fish to add to the tank, they are in a smaller tank at the minute so the old and the new fish would be all added at the same time to the new one. I didn't really want groups as they will breed and then cause trouble, I really wanted a single gold head comp to go in there but I'm not sure how that will go with a comp and a calvus, if either of them would bully the other one too much!
Any suggestions as to what to add at all?
Ohh ok, well good that you will add all the fish at the same time once you get your new fish. I personally wouldn't mix comps and calvus together. I have heard comps are more aggro (although I am not sure this is true). But the bigger issue is that they can cross breed. I would stick with calvus for now, if you want something for mid water that doesn't hide in caves I would add some Cyprichromis.
@@JasonsCichlids Cyprichromis were my next idea haha, yeah I'll look into get a small shoal of those I think, cheers fella!
Haha were they? Well there you go! Not a problem mate, good luck with them!
Hi Jason, do you think one Altolamprologus compressiceps (or one 5Bar cichlid) + 4 N.Caudopunctatus + Multies would be a good idea for 40G (160l = 100x40x40 cm?), Thank you so much
Unfortunately I would not keep 5 bar cichlids with the other fish you mentioned. They are just extremely aggressive. I don't think you should mix any of those fish actually. Both the caudopuncs and multies would be competing for the shells. And the Compressiceps may grow so large that it will eat both species. It might be best that you pick one of either caudopuncs or multies and then maybe choose a rock dwelling fish like a julie or a type of brichardi? Hope that helps mate
@@JasonsCichlids TX for the answer, I am asking since I've seen successful tanks with multies and frontosas. But N
Caudopunctatus are more a rock dweller than shell dweller? Have also been thinking about Julies (have kept few in the past with Malawis). What other centrepiece fish would you recommend instead? I am still thinking about either multies or ocelatus (but see from others that they don't really tolerate even themselves).
Oh interesting, could always give it a go but yeah if you want to breed them I wouldn't recommend you do it. Yeah caudopuncs are known to be rock dwellers too but will happily take up residence in shells too. Could always try it and see how they go. I'd recommend some sort of cyprichromis which would swim in the open water.
Also multies will be easier than occies. But yeah occies have a lot more colour and are great once you get a pair or trio out of them
@@JasonsCichlids thnaks Jason. Yeah, pitty that the occies are so territorial. However I have 4 small tanks (all planted, 2 are small vases with shrimp), if I would put occies +few punks and some cyprichromis, and occies would decide to breed, I could have an excuse for my girlfriend to get another say 20 gallon for the offspring :D To say look the poor fish, they will kill their babies, we cannot that happen. TX again, have great holidays. Mike
Hi Jason
I got my 12 black calcus fry...around 1 inch....
I feed it presently crushed flakes.....what all can I feed them??
Can i powder NLS/Northfin /Hikari and give them too...??
Congrats David! They must look amazing together. I would feel them some protein. Adult brine shrimp and Mysis shrimp. The frozen types will be fine. I feed mine pellets but I soak them before hand. I've never tried Northfin but have used NLS and Hikari. Good luck!
@@JasonsCichlids Thank you so much for sharing .....
I would like to ask how long does it takes the eggs to hatch? I have a couple of compressiceps (Almost same as Calvus) with eggs. I Discovered the eggs for the first time about about 5 or 6 days ago. I use a special Calvus cavern.
They are said to hatch after 2 days of spawning but I have never seen the eggs. Congratulations on your spawn too mate
@@JasonsCichlids i can tell you it is way longer. My guess is it takes about 7-10 days to hatch then they have that big eggsack. Count a week before that is gone. So from lay to freeswimming is between 17 to 21 days. I have a picture of the cave with the fry swimming in a corner if you are interested. Only about 10 fry left 4 weeks since i placed them in growing tank
Hi do you sell any
Hi there, yes I do. If you're interested, send me an email jasonscichlids@gmail.com